Structure Of Word Order In English English Language Essay

In this essay I will analyze about the construction of word order in English ; I will utilize some subdivisions. In the first subdivision, word order in other linguistic communications will be analysed. In the 2nd how, the word order was in Old English, and the alterations that have happened in order to go modern-day English word order ; taking into history the word order in other linguistic communications ( in this instance compared to Spanish ) . This paper will discourse the different procedures that change word order in English and some illustrations of how it happens. Word order in English is SVO [ Subject-Verb-Object ] but it is non the lone possible combination. As Biber provinces, “ English word order has frequently been described as fixed. It is surely true that the arrangement of the nucleus elements of the clause is purely regulated. Yet there is fluctuation, even in the nucleus of the clause ” ( Biber, 898 ) The aims of this essay are to analyze the word order in English and other linguistic communications, in instance to compare the word order in English and in Spanish. The archetypal order of SVO will besides be considered ; it can change through some procedures that are shown subsequently

The method that is used in this essay, consists in bibliographical research, specifically, it considers general mention grammars. Then, for the experimental portion, it uses a parallel principal tool ( described below ) . In these, it is necessary to advert systematic grammar like Randolph Quirk, Douglass Biber ; it will besides include some productive grammar like Adrian Akmaijan and Frank W.Heny and systemic-functional grammar like Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday. All of these mentions help to discourse the restrictions and limitations that word order in English suffer and besides to work out the job of these restraints. In this paper I besides will do a comparing, utilizing “ linguee ” between English and Spanish in a simple sentence, which will be chosen harmonizing to word order differences between both linguistic communications. This information will be in “ Data ” , where shows how different they are and their similarities. Finally at the terminal of the essay I will summarize and reason with the consequences to the job that this essay shows.

Background

2.1 Word order in the other linguistic communications

Languages around the universe are non the same. They do non follow the same regulations, nor the same word order. Languages are divided into different types, including VO ( verb before object ) – the class under which English falls.

Examples of the VO word order in pattern are given below:

( 1 ) She plays piano

( 2 ) *She piano dramas

The 2nd sentence is by and large grammatically incorrect in English, whilst in other linguistic communications, including Nipponese and Turkish. It is in fact possible to utilize the contrary word-order ( OV ) ( Aitchison, 30 ) . Aitchison points out that linguistic communications are seldom made up of one A?typeA? , and alternatively are composed of a mixture of lingual features, one of which is the predominating ( instead than the sole ) type. Whilst linguistic communications have their ain unique features, they besides portion facets with other linguistic communications. Joanna Nichols who “ its innovator, a linguist from the University of California at Berkeley ” notes that vocabulary is borrowed and exchanged between different linguistic communications, but the word building is non shared between them. For illustration, Spanish, like English has the SVO word-order but it is more flexible because of its verbal system. Old languages, like Latin, do non follow either and so are wholly free in their sentence structure. ( Aitchison, 31 )

2.2 Word order in modern-day English

It is of import foremost to believe about the significance of “ word order ” . Harmonizing to Douglass Biber, “ the term word order is most frequently used to mention to the order of the elements in the clause ” and in the instance of word order in English “ English word order has frequently been described as fixed. It is surely true that the arrangement of the nucleus elements of the clause is purely regulated ” . ( Biber, 898 ) Some other syntacticians like Randolph Quirk besides make some allusion to this subject, “ word order in linguistic communications tends to go around around the ordination of phrases which are clause elements, and it is noteworthy, for case, that in English the places of topic, verb, and object are comparatively fixed ” ( Quirk, 50 )

It is besides of import to cognize what a clause is and the elements that it is made up of: “ English does so hold rigorous restrictions on the ordination of clause elements, but that the more peripheral an component is, the more freedom of place it has. ” ( Quirk, 51 ) In footings of the elements of the clause, some of them are more cardinal than others: the most cardinal is the predicator, without which a clause is non a clause at all ; it is the lone component realized by a verb phrase. The 2nd most of import component is the topic, which is ever placed at the beginning of the clause and agrees in figure with the verb. The verb is followed by some complements that are reasonably cardinal elements in the clause and some of them are required for some verbs ; there are many types of complements but the most relevant are the direct and indirect complements. The most peripheral facets of clauses are adverbials phrases, which are less incorporate in the clause. All of this information can be summarised as: Predicator & gt ; Subject & gt ; complement & gt ; adverbials.

The canonical construction of SVO in English is shown in this illustration:

( 3 ) I gave you a book

Word order in Old English

In this subdivision it is of import to look at the development of Old English towards Modern English. Historically, English belongs to a group of linguistic communications called “ Proto-Indo-European ” Harmonizing to Jean Aitchison “ it is the presumed parent linguistic communication from which a figure of contemporary linguistic communications such as Greek, German, English, Welsh, Hindi, etcaˆ¦ That means that all of the linguistic communications that belong to this group have the same root, the same beginning. “ ( Aitchison, 24 ) . In Old English the word order “ may be different from ModE ; see particularly low-level clauses [ aˆ¦ ] in which the verb appears at the terminal ” ( Gramley, 29 ) . It can be said that it was largely “ free ” ; it did non count where the topic or verb were placed in the clause, and word order did non impact the significance. In this manner, Old English is similar to Latin and German ; below are illustrations in these linguistic communications that show they do non needfully have to follow a VO or OV construction:

As we can see in the illustration, modern German shows different word order forms for chief and low-level clauses. These forms are classified harmonizing to the place of the verb in the clause. There are three different possibilities but the most common 1 is where the verb occurs in 2nd place. Therefore this type is called verb second ( V2 ) and it is normally true of chief clauses. The verb can be the chief verb or an subsidiary and if there is an subsidiary and a verb the aide is in 2nd place and the verb appears at the terminal of the clause.

Both Latin sentences are grammatically right: one follows the standard OV regulation, whereas the second does non follow a fixed regulation. It is in this manner that Latin is a ‘free ‘ linguistic communication. Old English was non unvarying: it changed over clip. Written in an alphabet which is comparable to the modern English alphabet but with a few differences in spelling, small by small Old English developed into the linguistic communication it is today, because the significance of the clauses were “ free ” the map of the words were the most of import and they used inflexions which indicates ownership. One illustration of the challenging of regular word order is taken from Beowulf: “ For illustration, you can see belowA the original transition and a actual interlingual rendition of lines 1020-27 where Beowulf is being honored with gifts — a blade, a aureate streamer, and a helmet and armour — after he has killed Grendel. The gifts are highlighted in matching colourss. ” ( Poulakis )

Forgeaf ?a BeowulfeA A trade name Healfdenes

aˆ?segen gyldenneA A sigores to leane ;

aˆ?hroden hildecumbor, A A A helm ond byrnan,

aˆ?m?re maA°?umsweordA A A manige gesawon

aˆ?beforan beorn beran.A

And its interlingual rendition to Modern English reads:

He gave so BeowulfA A the blade ofaˆ?Healfdane,

aˆ?golden criterion [ streamer ] A

A A triumph to honor ; aˆ?embroidered war-banner, A helmet and armour, aˆ?

celebrated treasure-swordA A A A many sawaˆ?before the warrior borne. ( Pulakis, )

In this illustration we can detect that Old English did non follow a rigorous word order ; the inflexions used helped readers to cognize which map it played in the sentence. In other words “ the major difference lies in the fact that the antediluvian languages allowed the order of thoughts to be shown by word order and the syntactic dealingss to be shown by “ expirations ” ; while the modern linguistic communications use word order to demo both the order of thoughts and the syntactic dealingss ” ( Bean, 18-19 )

Word-order in Contemporary English

There are many surveies about word order throughout the history of grammar that agree about word order in English that follow the SVO building ; like general grammars DouglassBiber, RandolphQuirk aˆ¦However there are some other models like Generative Transformational grammars, such as Adrian Akmaikjan and Frank Heny and besides Systemic functional grammars like Michael Halliday which harmonizing to him, “ In English, as in many other linguistic communications, the clause is organized as a message by holding a distinguishable position assigned to one portion of it. One portion of the clause is enunciated as the subject ; this so combines with the balance so that the two parts together constitute a message. ” ( Halliday, 64 ) The Theme is the component, which serves as the point of going of the message ; it is that which locates and orients the clause within its context. Theme accompanied by a Rheme ; and the construction is expressed by the order – whatever is chosen as the Theme is put foremost. ( Halliday, 64-65 )

In the undermentioned lines, I will demo how word order in English can change in different types of sentences: indicative mood, interrogative.

First of all, in interrogative sentences the order can alter. In English there are two types of questions:

Yes/No inquiries: where one subsidiary verb ( be, hold, would, should, etc. ) is placed between the topic and the chief verb. An illustration of this is given:

( 5 ) & lt ; The misss & gt ; [ played ] football every hebdomad.

( 6 ) [ Did & lt ; the misss & gt ; play ] football every hebdomad?

In this inquiry the word order is VSVO Another illustration of this follows:

( 7 ) I play football on Mondays

( 8 ) Do you play football on Mondays?

WH-questions, where the object is moved to the beginning of the clause ; these can be direct object or indirect object:

( 9 ) I bought an ice-cream

( 10 ) What did you purchase?

( 11 ) I saw him yesterday

( 12 ) Who did you see yesterday?

We can see that these four illustrations are similar in signifier to Yes/No inquiries and that the object of the statement is replaced with a W-H inquiry.

Second, in declaratory sentences there besides some transmutations where its illustrations show an change in word order to OVS. Below there are some types of transmutations where a sentence can be exposed, some of them are:

Fronting, harmonizing to Biber, “ refers to the initial arrangement of nucleus elements which are usually found in post-verbal place ” ( Biber, 900 )

There are many types of fronting, which include predicative, nominal, complement, and object fronting. Below is an illustration of a demonstrative pronoun moving as a fronted object:

( 13 ) She does non eat any meat. That, I could non make.

( 14 ) Strange experiencing I felt!

This alteration of order alters the normal ( SVO ) and in ( 13 ) the word is ( OSP ) . Fronting can frequently be used to stress something like in the illustration ( 14 ) .

Dislocation “ has to make with the distribution of information, but it is non a simple word-order option. There are two major types of disruption: forewords and noun phrases tickets ” ( Biber, 956 ) . In foreword disruption, the foreword refers back to the capable pronoun, while the 2nd type refers back to the topic of the preceding clause. Examples of both are given:

-Preface: the most of import component is placed at the beginning of the phrase:

( 15 ) That Canis familiaris, this forenoon it made a muss

-Noun phrase tickets: the cardinal component is separated with a comma at the terminal of the phrase:

( 16 ) Where did [ they ] travel, the constabulary?

Inversion: is similar to looking. We can separate the two types of inversion:

– Subject-operator inversion is when the topic goes before the operator instead than the chief verb or a full verb phrase.For illustration:

-Subject-verb-inversion: when the verb or group of verbs ( in instance of aides ) is before the topic. For illustration:

Clefting “ is similar to disruption in the sense that information that could be given in a individual clause is broken up, in this instance two clauses, each with its ain verb. “ ( Biber, 958 )

For illustration:

( 17 ) My female parent found me in the bari? it was my female parent who found me in the saloon.

Furthermore, there are two types of clefting:

-It-clefts: consist of a clause has been separated in two parts each with its verb.

-Wh-clefts: consist of a clause introduced by wh-word normally what with its ain point of focal point typically at its terminal. ( Quirk, 959 ) Similar to this type of clefting is the imposter clefting.

Passive: In inactive sentences, “ the inactive agent is frequently the agent of the verbal action in the semantic sense though it may fufil other semantics functions such as experiencer ” ( Biber, 935 ) There are two sorts of passive:

-The long inactive where the agent is expressed in a by-phrase.

-The short passive where the agent is left unsaid.

( 18 ) I build the house i? the house was built by me

The chief features of the inactive voice are that the object in ( 18 ) alterations to the topic and the topic becomes object preceded by “ by ” .

Another type of passive is the “ Passive voice impersonal ” as his name suggests it does non hold a individual a topic

( 19 ) It is raining

( 20 ) It is said that was raining

Experiential there: Biber negotiations about the experiential where as “ a formal device used, together with a intransitive verb, to predicate the being or happening of something ( including the non-existence or non-occurrence of something ) ( Biber, 943 ) An illustration of the existential there is:

There are so many accidents in Portland

“ Extraposition ” is different to the other procedures. It consists in located elements of the clause that usually do no hold end place, like capable, at the terminal of the clause. It can be possible utilizing the “ empty-it ” at the beginning of the clause. Harmonizing to Randolph Quirk:

“ The opposite device of proroguing a usually non-final component to concluding place is shown by the extraposition of a topic clause. ) ” ( Quirk, 89 ) One illustration of extraposition is given:

( 22 ) It is of import to make this well

Extraposition is closed to the end-weigh rule for this ground it is of import to advert here. “ Principle of end-weight ” which serves the map of avoiding being top-heavy or unevenly imbalanced. It is the rule by which longer constructions are postponed to look subsequently in the sentence than shorter constructions. This is because when the topic is much longer than the predicate, a sentence becomes more hard to understand. By traveling the longer construction to the terminal, we can repair this job. Besides, the longest subdivision of the units that follow the verb should be placed at the terminal. End-weight aid to warrant the pick of a peculiar word order when we are presented with a pick of possible orders which are all grammatically right. The order of object and atom can be varied, for illustration, depending on the length of the object. For illustration we can look at the phrases, ‘They put it off ‘ and ‘We ‘ll hold to set the meeting off ‘ . Because the object in the 2nd sentence is longer, the order can be changed to: ‘We ‘ll hold to set off the meeting. ‘ The longer the object the more unacceptable it is to divide the object and atom.

Data ( 375 )

In this subdivision, I will analyze infusions from “ linguee ” to see how sentences like “ I play athleticss with my friend ” and “ Yo practico deportes con myocardial infarction amiga ” are related.

I late commented to my boy about the evident art of a really attractive individual ( female, by happenstance ) who seemed to be doing rather a splash with her surfboard ; I was impressed, but so I do n’t surf. businesschile.cl

In this illustration it is clear that in English it is obligatory the usage of pronouns at the beginning of the clause, nevertheless in Spanish it is non necessary because of the verb. It can besides be observed besides that the indirect object in Spanish can be before the verb or the contrary in English is ever after the verb.

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One other chief difference between the two linguistic communications is the order of the complements: in Spanish it is SVODOI, but in English it is SVIOOD. Furthermore, the order of the adjectives is different, as is the importance of the topic. In Spanish the topic is non necessary, nevertheless in English it is obligatory.

Conclusion ( 375 )

To sum up, word order in English is related to the morphology of the linguistic communication: linguistic communications that are extremely inflected could non hold a fixed word order. The inflexion of each component of the clause in linguistic communications like Latin, allow for the words to be rearranged without changing the significance of overall the sentence. Alternatively, the significance in these linguistic communications is given by the single word terminations. However, linguistic communications like English, which are less inflected, rely on a peculiar resource to keep the map of the word: in this instance, the resource is the word ‘s place in the clause.